The Stocks With the Biggest Midday Moves: Wayfair, Meta, Apple, Spotify, Qualcomm and More

On Monday, shares of furniture retailer Wayfair jumped 24.1% after receiving upgrades from multiple Wall Street firms, including a double upgrade to overweight from underweight at JPMorgan. The company announced on Friday that it would lay off about 10% of its global workforce as part of a cost-cutting plan. In its upgrade note, JPMorgan cited Wayfair management's "newfound commitment to controlling expenses."

Apple shares rose 3.2% on news that China is beginning to reopen after weeks of lockdown due to the coronavirus. This has investors hopeful that the tech and electronics business will get a boost from the reopening. Morgan Stanley called the stock a top pick, saying the reopening has “important implications” for demand as well as supply.

Meta's stock rose 2.4% after Citi reaffirmed its "buy" rating on the social media company. While there's limited visibility on the macroeconomic front, Citi believes the market is stabilizing.

Spotify's stock rose 3.1% on Monday after the company announced plans to lay off 600 employees, or about 6% of its global workforce. In an internal memo to staff, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek admitted that the company had been "too ambitious in investing ahead of our revenue growth."

Skechers stock rose 3.7% after Cowen upgraded it from market perform to outperform. The firm said there were potential upsides that Wall Street could be overlooking.

Salesforce shares advanced 3.9% following news that activist investor Elliot Management has reportedly made a multibillion-dollar investment in the company. The announcement comes a few weeks after Salesforce announced it would cut 10% of its staff and close some offices. This news is a boost for the company, which has been facing some challenges recently. Salesforce is one of the world's leading CRM (customer relationship management) platforms, and Elliot Management's investment is a vote of confidence in the company's future.

Qualcomm's stock rose 6.7% after Barclays upgraded its rating from overweight to equal weight. The firm cited Qualcomm's exposure to data centers, personal computers, and headsets as reasons for its more optimistic rating.

Western Digital's shares rose by 7% after Bloomberg reported that the company is in advanced talks to merge with Kioxia. Western Digital would spin off its flash business and merge it with Kioxia in a separately traded company, the report said.

Xylem's shares fell 8.2% after the company announced it was acquiring Evoqua Water Technologies in an all-stock deal valued at around $7.5 billion. Evoqua's shares rose more than 14% on the news.